Imported raw milk cheese doesn’t have to meet CFIA standards and only three percent of imports are tested
GUELPH, Ont. — Regulatory differences could put Canadian cheese makers at an unfair disadvantage if the proposed Canada-Europe Union trade agreement moves forward.
“I’m afraid that half of our 100 cheese factories in Quebec will disappear,” said Marie-Chantal Houde of Fromagerie Novelle France.
“This is a big issue for consumer health and the economic health of cheese factories in this country.”
Of special concern to Houde are raw milk cheeses. Thirteen of Quebec’s 110 cheese factories produce raw milk cheese. For six, it’s all they make.
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Houde said domestic production is highly regulated, while cheeses that do not meet Canada’s stringent standards can be imported.
“The imported cheese standard should correspond with the CFIA’s (Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s) standard, but some cheeses are bypassed because of special agreements,” Houde said.
She told the April 22 Science to Policy: Raw Milk Case Study symposium that the Quebec industry has not been able to find out why this was allowed.
Jeff Farber, director of Health Canada’s Bureau of Microbial Hazards, said a temporary authorization was issued to two factories in France to ship raw milk cheese to Canada.
The official who made the decision is not longer with the ministry, he added.
Houde said another concern is the CFIA’s practice of testing three percent of imported cheese batches.
Quebec has two standards for raw milk cheese, one governed by the CFIA for national distribution and one governed by the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation Quebec for Quebec-only distribution. Both have zero tolerance for listeria and salmonella, bacterial count limits and testing requirements.
There is a wide range of standards for raw milk and raw milk cheeses in the United States, where sale of the products is permitted, according to Catherine Donnelly, a nutritionist at the University of Vermont, and Ben Chapman, a North Carolina State University food safety expert.
They stressed the importance of education for farmers, processors and consumers as an alternative to regulation.
In Vermont, for instance, protocols for on-farm cheese makers were developed in 2009.
“We left it up to the cheese makers if and how the recommendations would be implemented, and then we went back to see what happened. There were improvements at every location,” Donnelly said.
